WWWWII

There is a war on in the web-browser market. Some call it "Web War II". Others say it's "The Second Browser War". All we know it that it's really good for us.

I've spent some time getting to know most of the popular browsers out there, so lets start with the most well known browser in the world.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer, or IE, is the browser that comes with every copy of Windows. It's ugly and cumbersome to use and has historically been slack on security to the point that in 2004 the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team [US-CERT] recommended users switch to a different browser. While Microsoft have become a lot more security conscience since, I honestly don't have anything good to say about this browser. Even the latest version seems to be a poorly implemented copy of feature sets from competing browsers.

• Firefox

Built by the Open Source community and the Mozilla Foundation, Firefox seems to be the current market leader. It's fast, stable and secure with hundreds of plugins, themes and add-ons available. It's usually the first thing I install on a computer.

• Google Chrome

There are a lot of great ideas being implemented into Google's Chrome minimalist browser. It's super fast and (apparently) built from the ground up for stability. However, it's very new and I found it to be lacking somewhat in the stability department. Knowing Google, it will probably be in beta for many years and undergo many improvements with constant updates. If for some reason you don't like Firefox, this is a great alternative for Windows users (currently there is no official Mac version of Chrome). As it matures, it will only get better. Google, after all, know a thing or two about how the Internet works. While using this browser, I really missed some of the toolbar add-ons and customizatioin options that I had in Firefox which brings me to...

• Safari

Safari is the browser you get pre-installed with every Apple computer. While Safari 3 works great on the Mac. It's fast, stable and secure. The Windows version however, was not really what I would call a great browser... or even a good browser. Like Chrome, Apple have taken a very minimalist approach in the design of their browser, so like Chrome I once again miss the toolbar add-ons and customization options that I had with Firefox. So even on the Mac, we ended up replacing Safari 3 with the OS X version of Firefox.

Safari 4 was released recently and since it's release I've been using it on both my Mac and my Windows machine. It's got the same minimalist approach but it's been redesigned almost in the image of Google Chrome, but with the sense of style that only Apple seem to have. It's still in beta so the Windows version is as stable as a straw house in a fairy tale. As to be expected, on the Mac, it's awesome. It has the three most important things. Speed, Stability and Security.

So while I love the way it does it's "inline spell checking" which is great when I'm blogging, I may very soon finish up my evaluation of Safari 4 beta on my Windows computer and go back to Firefox, at least until Safari 4 comes out of beta.

On the Mac, Safari 4 beta has been impressive. The top sites page and the ease at which you can find something in your history make it so you don't even need to set up your browser anymore. You just start using it and it sets itself up for you. There was only one thing we missed - a particular Firefox add-on that allowed us to monitor our download usage called "Internet Usage Meter".

Readers outside of Australia: Most Internet service plans in Australia have a limit on the amount of data you can download each month. Those that can secure a plan with unlimited downloads usually have to compromise the speed of their connection. Some plans even charge you for every MB you download over your quota.

Problem solved. For all those Mac users in Australia who subscribe to TPG Internet (yes, I'm talking to all 7 of you!) There is a Dashboard widget that can monitor your download usage. It's for TPG users only and it's called, unsurprisingly, TPG Usage Meter [TUM].

End of ramble.

Browser War II

It was 1994 when I became aware of this thing called the Internet, which had actually been around since the 1950's but had only been released to the public in 1990. At that time I was playing the original Doom and the original Warcraft on DOS and some people ran Windows for Workgroups 3.11.

1994 was also the year that saw the foundation of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web.

A friend of mine who we used to call was studying programming at uni used an OS called Linux. We used to call him "Spanish Bob" because his name was Robert and he came from Spain. He could dial-up to the university servers to get on the Internet where we would use Netscape Navigator to browse web pages and IRC chat with people from all over the world!

In August of 1995, Microsoft Windows95 was released and along with it was the Microsoft Windows95 Plus! Pack which would include Internet Explorer 1.0 to directly compete with Netscape's browser.

This was the beginning of a period known as The Browser Wars. By 1997 it looked like Netscape were clear winners with over 70% of all netizens using Netscape and less than 20% were using Internet Explorer.

Then Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 was released which was more faithful to the open standards set out by the W3C than Netscape Comunicator 4.0 and Microsoft were giving Internet Explorer away for free, supporting it's development with the success of Windows95 while Netscape's browser was pretty much thier only comercial product. By this time, IE was being bundled with every copy of Windows. By the end of 1998, Internet Explorer had won.

In the wake of Browser War I, the Mozilla Project was launched by Netscape in 1998. Netscape released the source code for Netscape Communicator to the public, making it free for anyone to disassemble, alter and redistribute the code. This was like Netscapes poison dagger for Microsoft Internet Explorer, allowing the entire world to build a browser that they wanted, one that would adhere stricly to the open standards set out by the W3C, allow all manner of add-ons and extensions and provide the features that the modern netizen wanted.

The Mozilla suite, which included a browser, e-mail, address book and internet relay chat client, didn't really become that popular, but with a safe monopoly on the browser market, Microsoft had all but stopped development on Internet Explorer. Mozilla had a community that was alive with enthusiasm with updates and new features being added regularly.

In 2004, the browser component of the Mozilla suite was separated into a stand-alone product and Firefox 1.0 was released. Browser War II officially commenced.

Firefox is up to version 2.0.0.6 and if you've never tried browsing with Firefox before, you should really try it out. Also, if you are sick of Outlook automatically opening virus infested e-mail for you whether you like it or not, perhaps you should try out Thunderbird, the standalone Mozilla e-mail client. I don't use Thunderbird myself, I use Firefox to access my Gmail instead.

Firefox = Good.

Once in a Blue Moon

I am a bit of a Google fan, you may have noticed, so it stands to reason that I would be trying out pretty much every Google gadget and doo-hickey that I can get my hands on. So I was checking my Google Calendar out the other day for which I installed a "Phases of the Moon" calendar. It shows little pictures of the moon in the top left corner of your calendar squares when you are in month view. If you hold your mouse over the little moon pictures it will tell you what phase of the moon that picture represents. When I pointed at the full moon on the 30th of June it didn't say Full Moon - it said Blue Moon!

Image lifted from http://www.hellomerry.com/sciencegrrl2/ archives

So if there was anything you reckoned you'd only do once in a blue moon, the end of this month is the time to do it!

Interest piqued, I check the faithful old Wikipedia. Seems there are about four definitions of Blue Moon and some of there are about when the Moon actually appeared to be blue. When Krakatoa erupted in 1883 the Moon appeared to be blue for about two years! The modern and widely accepted definition is the fairly rare occurrence of a second full moon in a calendar month and this is what's on my Google calendar. A full Moon on the 1st and a Blue Moon on the 30th of June.

So a Blue Moon is something that is rare, but inevitable.

There you go.

In other news...

Seems I have some regular readers outside people I know personally. I found a Windows Live Spaces person that actually listed D'gar HQ as one of her favourite things! How cool is that? I'm famous! So I went and checked her site out. Least I could do. Some of the photos look like Gladstone...

It's a shame to see another fall to lure of Microsoft though. Netizens need to be educated about web freedom and how to achieve it. Compare my site to any "Windows Live Spaces" site. I wonder if Mimi wants to advertise the "MSN Movies" site or the "Virgin Mobile" service or indeed even gives a toss about "British Gas" or thinks the "Nokia N76" is the mobile phone of choice for her readers. This isn't the users fault. Microsoft just doesn't give them any choice. You want to blog and share photos with friends? Microsoft is going to advertise on it.

Sure, my humble blog has some advertising on it, but apart from that thin strip across the top of this page that lets you perform a blog search, I've actually put all my ads there myself! That's right, the ads for OpenOffice and Google Toolbar and Firefox are there because I actually use OpenOffice and Firefox with Google Toolbar and believe that people would be better off using them over the Microsoft counterparts. Whats more, if someone clicks on those ads I get paid for it! It's been nearly a year since I started this blog and I've made a whopping $2.70... but that's beside the point! They're my ads and I decided to put them on my site not for the vast sums of money they generate, but because they are products that I believe in.

Nearly every Microsoft service advertises at you. There are ads in Hotmail, Spaces, MSN Explorer, Windows Messenger - and unless you pay them for premium versions, you are stuck with 'em. At least Gmail - Google's webmail service - doesn't close your account if you don't log into it for a month. Yep, that annoyed me. Losing a Hotmail account and all the e-mails in it because I was on holidays and offline for longer than a month certainly cured me. It doesn't take long to switch most of your programs to the alternatives - you just gotta do it.

Replace Internet Explorer with Firefox (and be more secure on the net)
Replace MSN Messenger with GoogleTalk (and chat without the advertising)
Replace Windows Search with Google Desktop (and search quickly with confidence)
Replace Microsoft Office with OpenOffice (and save hundreds of dollars)
Replace Windows Media Player with VideoLAN Client (and stop looking for codecs)
Replace Hotmail with Gmail (and keep your e-mails forever) or...
Replace Outlook Express with Thunderbird (and discover e-mail security)

If only I can shake this Operating System...

I'll not write about nothing!

Well its been a while since I posted anything. I've not had anything to write about. We've still not had any rain. Haven't been diving. The Wii was fun for a couple of days. Really good fun. You get sore playing that thing. Its a workout, that's for sure. Wii Tennis is the most fun.

I've just been checking out some YouTube videos and found one by one of the most talented pianists I have ever seen, not that I have seen many, but this little guy is just so expressive when he plays and just exudes talent. And he's not even ten yet! Press play and watch him play Beethoven's Fur Elise.

Click here to see a complete list of all Benyamin's YouTube videos.

Pretty good eh? I reckon!

---

I can't stress it enough. Get Firefox. Stop using Internet Explorer. Firefox is safer for online transactions, banking, e-bay. Firefox is faster. Firefox is more stable. Firefox is easier to use. Firefox has more features. Firefox is updated regularly. Firefox is free. Firefox is good.

There is plenty of good free software out there that is as good as and often better than their commercial counterparts. Google make a lot of it. Mozilla have the web browser and e-mail programs covered. The open-source community is doing a great job of making software that we need available to us at a price we love! Free!

This is the stuff I use and recommend.

Surfing the web

• Firefox - you probably guessed...
  

Email

• Gmail for personal use and Thunderbird for POP mail.

Antivirus

• I use Avast! but I have no problem with AVG. I stick with Avast! because the updates seem to be more frequent. New virus threats are being discovered every day so I like to have an up-to-date virus scanner.
  

Firewall

• I recommend Microsoft Windows Firewall. Yes, really. If you don't have any firewall, and you are on the Internet you are already infected with something and almost certainly a bloody idiot. A computer without a firewall lasts approximately 12 seconds on a broadband connection before it is infected with something. It should be the first thing you check and activate after you install Windows. Once its up, then and only then, can you consider an alternative. I use the nVidia ActiveArmor Firewall because of the brand on motherboard in my computer. ZoneAlarm possibly the easiest free firewall to use. Kerio also has a free version for personal use. I have also heard of Comodo who offer a free firewall as well as free antivirus and anti spam software but I don't know anyone who has tried it. Let me know if you have.
  

Anti-Spyware

• Spybot S&D. Adaware. Either. Both. I have never tried Microsoft Defender. I didn't like the name. If for some reason you think Microsoft - the most cyber-attacked company in the world - can save you from virus and trojan attacks, then you go right ahead.
  

Office

• You can always find OpenOffice.org installed on my computer in case I need to type something up or if I need to open something created in Microsoft Office. The latest version of OpenOffice.org shapes up with Writer vs. Microsoft Word, Calc vs. Microsoft Excel, Impress vs. Microsoft PowerPoint and Base vs. Microsoft Access. OpenOffice.org also has Draw - a program for making drawings, obviously, and Math for creating mathematical equations. I can't always recommend OpenOffice.org to people because they may already be neck deep in Microsoft Office files and they are not completely compatible with each other. Some people start freaking out and going into a rage if you even mention changing their Office software. They are about as good as each other in my opinion with Microsoft Office having a couple of nice features that are missing from OpenOffice.org but they are really close is quality and usability. If a OpenOffice.org user and a Microsoft Office user were given a set of tasks to do, they'd both get them done and only their familiarity with their own software will dictate how fast they do it and how good the finished result is. OpenOffice.org is free. Every time a new version comes out, its free. If you have a hard drive crash and the mate you lent your install disks now lives on the other side of the country, you can just download and install it. You don't need to activate it. And its free. Remember that when you go out to pick up your upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007. (I just check the prices for Microsoft Office 2003 at Harris Technology. Three complete office suites are available. Professional Edition at $779.00, Small Business Edition at $679.00 and Standard Edition at $629.00. Microsoft Word 2003 by itself is $378.00!)

Search

• I'm a Google Desktop convert. Look, when you get the shits with that little yellow dog asking you a half a dozen questions about what you are searching for and where would you like to search for it, then sniffs around your files and seems to fail at finding anything you are looking for, then try Google Desktop.

Photo

• Picasa. It takes the photos from your camera, lets you adjust the colour, crop, get rid of red-eye, notes, organize, email, print, order prints, share on the web, make slideshows or burn a photo CD. Did I miss anything?
  

Media Player

• I've been through a few media players but I can't help be impressed with the Video LAN Client (VLC Media Player). It plays almost anything you throw at it without needing a million codecs. It plays DVD, VCD, CD, MP3, Mpeg, DivX, Xvid... and it's free!

Get Firefox.

Cya.

Fans of the Fox

Firefox 2 has been released. I pity the fool that still uses Internet Explorer. Whenever you feel like making things easier for yourself, go get it!

New web pages open in a new tab by default now - one window for all your browsing. Built in spell checker will point out errors while you type, be it your blog, an e-mail or forum. If you close your browser accidentally, it will display all the pages you were on when you closed it.

Some Firefox fans in Oregon set out to make a Firefox crop circle. Check out the video on Firefox Flix.

Get Firefox2 with the GoogleToolbar. It's the best way to access GoogleOS!

More Google Goodness

It's that time again, when I start to spout how great and wonderful Google is. Lets start with possibly the biggest slap in the face to Microsoft so far (but not the biggest to come, I'd reckon), Google Spreadsheets. Most people have opened up Microsoft Excel or our loyal OpenOffice users would have launched Calc, but Google has shown that you can have useful office productivity software in your web browser. Users of Internet Explorer and Firefox can now go to spreadsheets.google.com and create spreadsheets from scratch or import one from Excel or Calc, and then share them with other users in real-time. What that means is, if I had a Google Spreadsheet open on my computer right now, you could also have the same spreadsheet open on your computer and if either one of us changes any of the information in it, the other would see in instantly. Of course the creator of the spreadsheet has control over who is allowed to view or change it. I keenly await the Google Word Processor.

I think what we are seeing here is the start of a phenomenon called The Google Operating System. Now most people think of an "operating system" (OS) as the first think that loads up when you turn on your computer. A quick Google search on "GoogleOS" will turn up a lot of confusing information about some fabled linux-based OS that will boot-up from a pen-drive. Most of it looks and sounds like absolute rubbish. I don't think GoogleOS will be a conventional operating system. That doesn't seem to be Googles style at all. Accessing your information from anywhere and sharing it with anyone seems to be the priority for these guys so it doesn't make sense that they would make an operating system that you load onto one computer like you do with Windows or Linux. This is a system that you can access from any computer with any operating system that is hooked up the the Internet and has a web browser, whether it is a high-end gaming rig with the latest 64bit Windows Vista, an Apple Macbook or an old Pentium III running Linspire.

• GoogleTalk has been constantly improved and refined since its release and has replaced MSN Messenger on all computers at my place.
  

• Gmail is a fantastic web-based e-mail service with the best spam filters and search facilities that I have ever seen. And they give you over two-and-a-half Gig of space to store your mail. Never delete your e-mail again!
  

• Google Desktop gives me a much better search facility for my own files and folders than that stupid dog that Microsoft give us in WindowsXP.

• Google Calendar has be invaluable in helping me keep my appointments and plan out my days ahead.

• Google Maps and Google Earth have allowed me to check the world out in amazing detail.
  

• Google News keeps me up to date with current events.

• Google Video gives me something to watch when there is nothing on television and also give me an outlet for my own video work to share with the world.

• Picasa, a Google application, lets me organize and touch up my photos.

• Google Page Creator for creating your own webpages.

• Google Notebook lets me collect info directly from a website and access it from anywhere in the world.

• And of course, I must not forget Blogger, a Google service, which allows me to write all this to you in my very own customizable webspace.

There is a heap of stuff being developed in the Google Labs. Most of it is given away for free. You can access your information from anywhere. This is the GoogleOS.

I'm not crazy.

Denny Crane.